1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of e-commerce and more specifically to the field of product marketing over the World Wide Web.
2. Related Art
The World Wide Web (also referred to as “the Web”), which is the part of the global Internet where commerce typically takes place, has only been in existence since about 1993. Before the Web, there were no graphics, sound or moving pictures on the Internet, which was used mostly by researchers and those within university communities. In the few years it has been in existence, the Web has become a leading force for business. Statistics show that the Web generates billions of dollars worth of business per year. Product and service sales and fees account for a majority of the current revenues. Retailers, manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and the like are all offering and selling their services and products over the Web (i.e., “online”). Accordingly, the methods of conducting business for entire industries are changing. For example, the real estate and travel industries have gone through dramatic changes as more and more consumers have started shopping and buying online.
There are hundreds of thousands of products and services offered on the Web. In addition, there are many avenues for selling a product or service. Makers of many software products, for example, will often supply their product to multiple online vendors for eventual sale to a consumer (i.e., an end user). Consequently, many online vendors offer the same products for sale.
There are millions of sites on the Web. Somehow, a vendor Web site has to inform customers about who they are and what they have to offer. Many vendor Web sites with great business ideas fail because they cannot reach potential customers or do not effectively sell their products or services. This is because many Web sites do not know how to best route customer traffic to their sites. A Web site without customer traffic is like a store that is empty. That is, where there are no customers, there can be no sales.
Methods of letting the public know what products and/or service an online vendor has to offer include, for example, sending out mass electronic mailings (“e-mails”) containing product information and placing advertisements on other, popular Web sites. However, these tactics are indiscriminate as to who receives the product information. As a result, a Web user who has purchased a product or service from one vendor can subsequently be solicited by other vendors selling the same product or service. Because advertising may be different among multiple vendors of the same product or service, a Web user may confusingly think that different products or services are being offered. Subsequently, a Web user already possessing a product or service may inadvertently attempt to acquire the same product or service from another vendor. This can be time-consuming and annoying for a Web user. As a result, this may affect sales of vendor Web sites as Web users may want to avoid such confusing situations in the future.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a system, method and computer program product whereby a Web user who already possesses a product or service purchased on the Web does not receive duplicate offers for the same product or service from multiple, other Web sites.